Throughout the five years Brandon Silversmith spent to complete Quinte Adult Education’s online Ontario Secondary School Diploma, he was determined to complete higher level courses to enable him to pursue a university degree.

With the support of staff at the Contact North | Contact Nord online learning centre in Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation (now located in Brantford), he enrolled in several of The LearningHUB’s online courses, including Punctuation and Reading Comprehension to prepare him for Quinte Adult Education’s online Ontario Secondary School Diploma program.

“I started with English, took a break and then took Calculus and Computer Science,” says Brandon. He mostly worked on his courses at home but received encouragement and support from staff at the online learning centre, including helping him find tutors when he was struggling with assignments.

His interaction with teachers was through e-mail. “Sometimes I would use YouTube and Google, all of those things helped,” he says.

When he was invited to receive his diploma at the Quinte Adult Education offices in Belleville, he immediately made plans to drive the 3 1/2 hours to finally meet his teachers. “I can’t put it into words how important it was to meet my teachers and receive my awards in person” Brandon says.

Brandon graduated with his Ontario Secondary School Diploma in June 2016.